What Does It Really Mean to Build a Company Ready for an IPO?

An IPO doesn’t force you to build a better publicly traded company.

It forces you to build a better company.

That’s why we’ve built our own Road to IPO model around four pillars.

The first pillar is structure. Investors need to understand how the Group operates, where value is created, and how growth is built. If the structure is complex or unclear, the story is also difficult to understand. Our goal is to build a clear, cohesive Group that is easy for both owners and future investors to understand.

The second pillar is culture. HTGP’s strength lies in its entrepreneurial mindset. We do not want to build a Group where all companies start to look the same. We want to preserve entrepreneurship, local decision-making, and the unique identity of each company. At the same time, we need a shared direction. We have distilled this idea into a simple principle: “Operationally independent. Strategically unified.”

The third pillar is finance and governance. In a growth company, many things can be handled flexibly. In a publicly listed company, that is no longer enough. Reporting must be timely. Responsibilities must be clear. Decision-making must be transparent. This is not about bureaucracy. It is about trust.

The fourth pillar is market positioning. We must be able to credibly explain why we exist, how we are growing, and why our strategy works. A strong equity story is built through actions.

In practice, these four pillars encompass hundreds of individual tasks. Some are major decisions, while others are small details. One thing, however, unites them all: a publicly listed company is not built on its listing day. It is built over the years leading up to it.

HTGP’s network includes a remarkable group of experienced professionals who are advising and supporting us on this journey. We are taking our first steps largely with the help of our own organisation, as there is a wealth of expertise within our Group companies and our Growth Advisor network.

One of our greatest strengths on this journey has been that network. We have received particularly valuable guidance from Sophie Jolly, who leads capital markets communications at HTGP, as well as from our Board, our owners, and experts across our Group companies.

Sophie brings extensive experience in capital markets, IPOs, investor relations, and international growth. She has more than 30 years of experience in the capital markets and has been involved in several IPO processes. She also spent more than 20 years in major listed companies such as Wärtsilä, KONE, and Fortum, leading investor relations.

In addition, Sophie has extensive experience working with smaller listed companies and growth businesses. We particularly value her understanding of how to build a credible investment case around growth, sustainability, strategy, and international expansion.

In this blog series, HTGP CEO Joni Lappalainen shares HTGP’s journey toward a potential stock market listing in 2028. The series explores the lessons learned, decisions made, challenges encountered, and successes achieved along the way as the company prepares for its next phase of growth.